In a magnetic tape manufacturing process, there are usually three kinds of ways and means to wind or rewind the narrow magnetic tape on the flanged reel. First, the narrow magnetic tape may be wound on the flanged reel in a relatively short and predetermined length out the roll of a relatively long magnetic tape having the same width as that of the magnetic tape wound on the flanged reel. Second, the narrow magnetic tape may be wound on the flanged reel in a relatively short and predetermined length by slitting the parent roll of a relatively longer and wider than that of the magnetic tape wound on the flanged reel into narrow tapes. Third, the narrow magnetic tape may be rewound on the flanged reel in a roll out of another roll of a magnetic tape having the same width and length as that of the magnetic tape rewound on the flanged reel. During winding the magnetic tape in such ways and means as described above, the vibrations of the magnetic tape at the winding point where the uppermost layer of the magnetic tape of the tape roll comes into contact with the forthcoming magnetic tape in the direction of its width and/or thickness, what is called the behavior of the magnetic tape, sometimes take a change for the worse due to their physical properties of both the wide magnetic tape and the narrow magnetic tape. The change in the behavior of the magnetic tape causes the roll of narrow magnetic tape wound on the flanged reel to worsen the appearances of the end face of the tape roll. The appearances of the winding depend on whether the rugged surface or irregular profile exists on the end face of the tape roll. The faster the magnetic tape is wound, the poorer the appearances of the winding become.
The unneat winding having the poor appearances is likely to cause the magnetic tape serious troubles such as deterioration of the electromagnetic conversion properties. If the magnetic tape is used for a video tape cassette to record in high density, such an unneat winding is advantageous because audio signal and synchronizing signal but video signal are recorded along the side edge of the magnetic tape. For that reason, all the rolls of the magnetic tape had to be inspected their appearances by eyesight or the like before assembling the video tape cassette.
Such an inspection, however, requires a lot of labors and time, thereby causing impediment to succeed in the conventional process. In order to avoid such a manual inspection, various methods for neatly winding the magnetic tape have been proposed. Those methods proposed can be broadly sorted into two types. In one of two types, an endless flexible belt made of rubber, polyimide resin or the like is driven in the radial direction of the roll of the narrow magnetic tape wound on the flanged reel, pressing its flat surface resiliently upon the surface of the uppermost magnetic layer of the roll of the same. In the other, a soft belt made of a non-woven fabric sheet is provided at the gap between the inner surface of the flange integrated with the hub and the side edge of the narrow magnetic tape wound on the hub so as to press its soft surface resiliently upon the end face of the roll of the same, extending over in the radial direction of the end face.
Since the endless and soft belt are put in contact with the magnetic tape, the ingredients of such belts and magnetic tape are likely to be scraped off from their substrates, be scattered and then adhere to the magnetic tape to cause serious defects such as the drop out of reproduction out-put. The stronger than needs the pressing force of such belts becomes, the more troubles such as the deformation or damages to the side edge of the magnetic tape occur. Thus such proposed methods could not fill sufficiently the primary functions and objects thereof. Moreover, since the main parts of the apparatus in accordance with such methods are subject to be worn down during use, the apparatus is at disadvantage in its running and/or maintaining cost. Besides, the structure of the apparatus is complicated because the apparatus has to replace the expired or fully wound tape rolls with the new ones by utilizing a shuttle means movable between their operational station and the non-operational station. Furthermore, since it takes much time to complete the above described replacement of the rolls, it prevents the productivity of winding the magnetic tape operation from raising more.
In order to solve such problems, various methods recently are being proposed, for example: one is to apply a magnetic field generated with a magnet to the roll of the narrow magnetic tape wound on the reel in the width direction of the tape. However, according to the method utilizing the magnetic field, it is inevitable for the side edge of the narrow magnetic tape to rub against the inner surface of the flange integrated with the hub due to the magnetic attraction by the magnet, thereby generating numerous scrapings which cause the drop out of reproduction out-put.